Each week on This Bites, dining critic Ann Christenson from Milwaukee Magazine and Radio Milwaukee’s resident foodie Tarik Moody dig into the city’s culinary and restaurant culture to help you find new spots, old favorites and the best ingestibles around Milwaukee.
In a lot of ways, our city is perfectly capable of hanging with the best of them from a culinary perspective. From fine dining to fast casual, Milwaukee’s restaurant scene covers plenty of ground — but it does have its blind spots, one of which we discuss at the top of this episode.
If you’ve never heard of the Japanese approach to dining called “omakase,” it might be because Milwaukee doesn’t have a restaurant that features it. Private chef Worawit "Chef Ray" Boonyapituksakul plans to change that when he opens Omakase 1033 in the Walker’s Point space that previously housed 1033.
Omakase is a Japanese phrase that means “I’ll leave it up to you” and, as a dining strategy, carries a little bit of risk. Essentially, you ditch the usual ordering process and put everything in the hands of your chef. Boonyapituksakul has some eyebrow-raising experience in this arena, having studied in New York City under celebrated chef Masaharu Morimoto. As he pointed out to the Journal Sentinel, while omakase is utilized extensively in New York and Chicago, “I wondered why no one had introduced this concept here.”
Boonyapituksakul has done it on a limited basis via various pop-ups around town. But Omakase 1033 will give it a permanent home with an intimate approach that serves guests at the 14-seat bar. As you’ll hear in the full podcast, Ann and I are plenty excited about the concept, as well as a few other items from Milwaukee’s food scene:
- Moving from Japanese cuisine to a celebrated Vietnamese dish, chef Alex Hanesakda will host a pho demonstration Nov. 21 at the Milwaukee Public Market.
- The Vince Lombardi Cancer Foundation’s signature Food & Wine event will come to the Pfister Hotel and Wisconsin Club on Nov. 1 and 2.
- In another Milwaukee rarity, there’s a Victorian-inspired teahouse coming to the Dubbel Dutch hotel.
Culinary podcasts aren’t exactly common in Milwaukee, either, so we’d appreciate it if you could support This Bites however you can. Subscribing on your preferred podcast platform is always great, and leaving a rating or review is a big help as well. Thanks.
